Alaskan cruise: return

The cruise ship was docked in Seattle when Tammy and I got out of bed Saturday, September 24.  After eating breakfast we left the ship around 9:30 am.  There weren't many passengers on the ship when we left.  The final departure time for people to be staged off the ship was 10 am.  The ship felt odd and lifeless with so few people on it.

My uncle Curt paid for the limo service to have a town car drive us from the ship to his place.  Tammy accidentally packed the limo company's phone number in her luggage that was picked up overnight so it would be ready for her to get once we left the ship.  So she had to call Curt in the morning to get the limo company's phone number.  When she called the limo company she discovered the driver was already at the dock and was driving circling around looking for us.  We told him we wouldn't be off the ship for another 90 minutes or so.

Finding our luggage wasn't hard.  Waiting for our town car to arrive took a while as there were so many vehicles and people waiting to be picked up.


Tammy left for home Sunday morning.  I left Monday afternoon after having breakfast with my uncle Larry and aunt Diane.  Larry took me to the Tacoma train station.  Larry had overestimated the amount of time it would take us to get to the train station so we arrived plenty early.   That turned out to be good as the train between Portland, Oregon and Seattle was delayed.  So that I would be on time for the train leaving from Seattle, the Amtrak official put me on a Trailways bus going to Seattle.

There were four of us, including the driver, on the large bus.  Talking with one young woman I learned she was taking the bus all the way to Spokane.  She wasn't taking the train from Seattle as the Department of Corrections would only pay for a bus trip.  I never asked where she came from and why.

It was overcast and raining and I read during the journey.  Just outside of Seattle the driver slammed on the brakes and shouted "No! No!  No!  No!  No!" as the bus slid on the wet pavement.  The traffic in our lane of the freeway had stopped suddenly and the bus slid and slid as we were going downhill when the driver slammed on the brakes.

A red car was stopped in front of us and I watched as the car got closer and closer and then disappeared below the bus's front window.  I thought we had stopped just in time only to feel a bump as we slid into the car.

The bus stopped.  As the driver was asking if we were ok the woman in the red car drove off.  What? Where's she going? She was lost in traffic before she signaled and pulled over to the right shoulder.  The car that had been in front of her car pulled off the road behind her and the bus then moved to the shoulder behind them.  We were delayed as everyone looked their vehicles over, exchanged insurance information and took photos of the vehicles.  No one appeared to be hurt.

I felt sorry for the bus driver as he seemed to be a real nice guy.  He had been allowing for plenty of room in front of the bus to the vehicles ahead of the bus.  But I think it was a combination of the traffic stopping, and suddenly, plus the wet pavement and being on a downhill section.  Take any of the elements away and the bus would not have hit the car.

After the accident another young woman came from the back of the bus up to the front where the other woman and I were sitting.   She was traveling with her baby daughter who was sleeping.  She was also going to Spokane by bus.  Both women seemed nice, but neither were the sharpest stick in the woodpile.

Because I was way early at the Tacoma train station, this delay didn't hurt.  I was still at the Seattle train station well before the train left.

Our train car was a little over half full but I was able to get two seats for myself.  This was good as I had came down with a cold the day I left the cruise ship.  The cold was serious by the time I took the train home.  I slept good on the train only waking up a little before the train arrived in Whitefish.

And then I was home as my neighbor Jan came and got me.  Once home I slept most of the day as I was still suffering from my cold.